Patchwork Girl
by Ayakiri
Summary: What happens when your best friend is a doll? Way better than it sounds. Promise.


There was once a little boy who was very frail and sickly. He was never allowed outside for fear he would catch a cold or get hurt due to his poor health and frailty, and felt very lonely.

One night that boy sat at his windowsill and looked up to the sky, eyes fixed on the moon, and prayed.

"Please.....please....I'm so lonely....let me find a friend"

After reapeating this a few times, he crawled into bed and cuddled close to his blankets and fell into a shallow slumber. Little did he know his mother had been watching him pray the

whole time, forming an idea to make the boy happy. She gently closed the door and looked throughout the house, finding any scraps of silk, cloth, and blanket she could and set to

work.

She stitched all of the scraps together to make a doll. The stuffing was made of goosefeathers rounded up from the geese outside in the barn, her hair was made of yellow yarn, her

eyes two blue buttons, a big red bow in her hair from an old ribbon, and her dress of an old purple linen sheet. She worked on this doll for a week's time, hearing her boy's prayer

every night for a friend to give him company.

Finally, one night, she completed the doll, gently slinking into her son's room to place it on the bed beside him for him to discover when he woke in the morning. When morning came

and the little boy awoke, he was gleeful to see the doll beside him. "Mommy! Mommy!" he yelled, running to her while she was making breakfast, "I prayed for a friend and I was given

one! Look look"

The mother smiled, delighted to see the happiness she had given the boy at his new companion. From then on the boy would play in his room with his new friend, and he never

complained he was lonely again.

When the boy turned 12 he believed the doll would talk to him. If he left the room the doll would cry "Don't leave me!" The boy would carry the doll with him wherever he went, thinking

he imagined the voice. Eventually the boy was tired of his mind playing tricks on him. he sat the doll down on his bed and sat oppposite of it, looking it in it's button eyes and asked,

"Can you really talk"

The doll giggled "Yes silly. I could understand you the whole time. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to talk or not. You prayed for me and I came"

The boy couldn't believe his ears! He could actually TALK to his friend.

He spent many days afterwards talking to the doll about his life and how he wished he could go outside, wanting to go to a public school and meet other kids, but because he was so

sickly he couldn't. The doll would just giggle and say, "Silly! You have me right here! I'll always be your friend!" The doll couldn't be happier, and neither could the boy.

As the years went by, the boy grew into a young man of 16. The doll had become ragged and torn. The ends of the feathers were poking out of her patchwork skin, and one of her

button eyes was hanging on by a thread. The boy had lost most of his interest in her, and the next day would be giving her away to be fixed up and given to another child who needed

her.

She sat in her spot on the bed and sighed, looking to the boy and asking "Boy, why do you not play with me? I can no longer walk or see very well, but you are still my only friend"

The boy just answered, "I'm a boy. I don't like dolls. Besides, the doctors say I'm well enough to start going to a public school. I can make REAL friends there"

The doll just sighed and bowed her head, "Then will you spend one last night with me before I must leave you?" She asked.

"Sure. No harm in it..." the boy replied, picking up the doll, "What would you like to do"

"I would like to sit on the windowsill with you and look to the moon and pray like you did for me." she answered.

The boy did as she asked, coming to sit on the windowsill with the doll, looking towards the moon, "The moon looks just like it did all those nights I prayed..." he whispered.

The doll smiled, "I want to pray..." She said, "I want to pray to never have to leave you. You are my best friend"

The boy sighed, "But you must. I don't play with dolls and there is another child out there who probably needs you"

'If a child needed me more than you do, I would have been sent there, not here." came her reply, "I have one last favor to ask of you boy"

"What is that?" The boy questioned.

"Kiss me, boy. Like you did when you were younger. When you would kiss me goodnight and tell me all your secrets"

The boy did as he was asked, kissing the doll gently, "I love you. You'e my best friend too.....but someone else must need you more." he whispered.

The doll did not answer, nor move again as he readied it the next day to be taken to be fixed and given away. He felt so sad on the way home. Why had she not said goodbye? He did

hurt her after all. Did she really care that much about him? Just as the thoughts really started to bug him, he came to the house. He slowly entered the house, dreading going to a room

without his friend. He said a prayer to himself, asking that the doll find a good home and would be happy. He gently opened his door to find a girl sitting on his bed where his doll would

sit. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, a big red bow in her hair, and a purple dress.

"Who are you?" the boy asked, not sure how this stranger had gotten into his house.

The girl giggled just like the doll used to, and simply replied, "You prayed for me and I came."


End file.
